The Simplest of Truths
by Painted Sky
Summary: [ Over the course of a day, Olette ponders whether or not it's okay for one to be happy with the life they lead. ] [ roxette ] [  and you think you'll be happy if granted one more wish ]


**A/N: Wow. I don't actually feel guilty for writing a oneshot. Probably because I posted a chapter on both of my active stories only hours before deciding to write this, so I don't feel like I'm neglecting something that someone out there somewhere has on Alert and actually cares about, as opposed to my slightly crackish oneshots I keep putting out, for whatever reason. Beats me. **

"_The trees grow so thick,  
You can barely see through.  
But the forest bestows the simplest of truths.  
You think you'll be happy if granted one more wish,  
But the truth is you'll never need more,  
You'll never need more,  
You'll never need more than this."_

- Vanessa Carlton, "More Than This"

**The Simplest of Truths:**

As Olette inhaled, she was filled from head to toe with one of her favorite feelings. As she exhaled, she identified it as the feeling one got when they woke up on the first day of summer vacation. It was a peculiar feeling that was unmatched by any other, some freedom and excitement mixed in with carelessness and a tiny bit of anticipation, a little bit of energy and a little extra spring in her step. She inhaled once more and stretched as her slightly sore muscles protested to the sudden movement. But as always, they complied, and she blinked slowly as she peered first at her clock, then out the window.

Her clock, ever reliable, dutifully announced that it was a quarter after eight, to which her natural instincts reminded her that Hayner was probably in trouble already, Pence was taking pictures of it and Roxas was still asleep, and that she would probably have to walk down the street and wake him up, so he wouldn't miss too much. She chuckled at the thought—Roxas was never much of a morning person. But to be standing over him when his pretty blue eyes opened was always a nice experience, even if he didn't recognize her right off the bat.

The view out the window reminded her that it was summer now, and that the days were certainly getting longer. She had missed the sunrise by at least a few hours, and she was slightly disappointed at that. Naturally, Twilight Town was beautiful at dawn and dusk alike, almost in an otherworldly sort of way. The bright sunlight reminded her that her mother had left hours ago to tend to the flowers in her shop, and she needed to get up and feed the cats before they tore the house to shreds, because her father would forget to do it until it was too late. At the thought of her tortoiseshell cats gnawing on her favorite pair of shoes, she swung her legs out of bed and decided that it was time to get up, after all.

Olette yawned, stretching one more time before heading to her closet. She pulled out her favorite orange shirt and a pair of khaki capris and headed to her dresser in search of socks, the venture successful after a short period of time. After she was dressed, she ran her fingers through her hair in a gesture that showed exactly how much she cared about her appearance in front of her friends. She bent over and shook her head slightly, as to rid her brown wavy hair of the bedhead frizz, though she knew her three best friends wouldn't mind if she looked a little worse for wear—after all, they were guys. How were they supposed to notice anyway? And second, it was summer vacation now. Summer vacation was about doing what you wanted, when you wanted, and Olette didn't really want to fix her hair.

At the bottom of the stairs, she was met by her three black and brown cats, meowing discontentedly. "I know, I know, I'm coming." She reassured them. As she offered a "Good morning," to her father, who was sitting at the table reading the paper and drinking coffee, she crossed the kitchen to the three bowls sitting on the floor to the left of the refrigerator, in a small space between the large cooling appliance and the wall. The three cats lined up by their respective bowls, even the youngest at a mere five months old knew his place. All three looked up expectantly at Olette, and the youngest was still mewing. "Shh, Taurus." She said softly, as she picked up the cat food from the counter and poured it into his bowl, and immediately he began munching contentedly, purring all the while. The other two, Virgo and Capricorn, were just as eager to receive their breakfast, even if they were a little less vocal about it. She quickly fed the other two cats, said her goodbyes to her father, and headed out the door.

* * *

Her next stop, before beginning the search for Hayner and Pence before things got too out of hand, was Roxas' house. As strange and awkward as it seemed to everyone else outside their small circle of friends, Roxas relied on Olette to wake him up in the morning, even on school days. Roxas' mother had had her suspicions about it all, but had eventually accepted Olette as a common presence in her house, even so much as to think of her as a daughter figure. Olette herself had to admit that from the outside, it might seem a bit odd, but she really didn't care. Because like her kitten Taurus, she knew her place. 

She knocked three times, and after a moment Roxas' mother opened the door. "Good morning, Olette, I was just on my way out."

"Good morning, ma'am." Olette replied, and as his mother opened the door wider to walk out, Olette stepped inside the doorframe. As she heard the door shut behind her, she sighed and started up the stairs. She was slightly heavy footed, but she knew it didn't really matter—Roxas' father had gotten on the train to go to the Terrace at least an hour ago, and Roxas was a deep sleeper, so he wouldn't even hear her coming.

She walked down the hall to the second door on the right, and when she opened it she saw exactly what she had suspected, a slightly cluttered room and Roxas knocked out like a dead person.

"Roxas…" Olette said, but the figure was unmoving, so she squatted beside his bed, right beside his head. "Guess what?"

As he awoke, he jumped slightly, to Olette's amusement. "What?" He asked wearily.

"It's summer vacation." She said happily, as she couldn't help but stare into his nice blue eyes.

"Mmmm." He let out a sigh, and it was obvious that all he really wanted to do was go back to sleep, but as far as she was concerned, that was out of the question.

"C'mon…" She nudged him in the side, as she added, "I bet Hayner and Pence are already up…"

"And I bet Hayner's getting his ass kicked by Seifer. Your point is…?"

"Aw, c'mon, Roxas…You have to get up eventually…." She cocked her head slightly, her facial expression taking on a begging sort of look, and Roxas sighed, resigning. He sighed, smiling a half smile as he shook his head slightly. The other half of his smile spread across his face as he took his fingers and ran them through her wavy hair. "Bedhead?" He asked, smirking slightly now.

A little self-conscious, now, Olette replied, "I was in a hurry to get down here. It's summer vacation. You're not supposed to care what my hair looks like."

As Roxas got himself out of bed and got dressed, Olette went over into the next room to the bathroom, and took a moment to examine her hair properly. She scoffed, deciding that it didn't look too bad, though she did wet her fingers and try to smooth down the majority of the frizz.

* * *

The pair headed out to the back alley, first, to find that it was deserted. But pinned to the wall with one of the darts from the dartboard was a note from Hayner reading: "Down at the Sandlot, meet us there." The two laughed at the thought of Hayner walking down to the Sandlot and confronting Seifer. Olette attempted to follow his logic in doing that, but Hayner was the kind of person who acted first and thought never, except possibly when he was getting his wounds bandaged up. Even then, he was never one to learn from his lessons. 

Roxas pulled his Struggle sword from behind the couch and they headed through the alley to the Sandlot. Even as they were approaching, they could hear Hayner getting beaten up, though when the turned the corner and saw the fight, they got a less than pleasant (but all the more amusing) surprise. Fuu herself was fighting Hayner, and to both their surprise (and amusement) she was doing pretty well. She didn't have a weapon, but she was fast, and she was dodging and striking Hayner so fast that Olette suspected he didn't even know what was going on.

The two continued strolling to stand beside Pence, who turned away from the action to greet them. As Fuu struck Hayner again, he snapped a picture, smirking slightly to himself. All at once, to the three friends' surprise (and possibly Hayner himself), Hayner collapsed. Fuu stood proudly over the panting, unmoving figure at her feet, and as the people on the sidelines walked over, Pence snapped another picture for good measure.

"How the hell did that happen?" Hayner groaned, half of his face in the dirt.

"Imbecile." Fuu growled, but Seifer jumped in and explained on her behalf.

"When she hits, she strikes pressure points. If she hits them hard enough and fast enough, the body's system fails and collapses from the inside out." He said, to which Fuu nodded and added,

"Efficient."

"That's pretty impressive." Olette interjected, realizing how intelligent that was.

"Impressive isn't quite the word I would use, actually." Hayner said, still unmoving.

In the end, Seifer, Rai and Fuu left to invade some other part of the town, and Olette, Pence and Roxas were left with Hayner, who still couldn't move.

"What are we supposed to do?" Roxas asked Olette, as they bent down to examine Hayner.

"Well, from the way it sounded, there's nothing we can really do but wait…" She said hopelessly, but she couldn't help but smile. She could tell that her friend was struggling with the fact that he was stuck on the ground, unable to move, because he had been beaten up by a girl. "Hey, Pence? Do you think you could head over to Market Street and get us some food? I skipped breakfast." She pulled some munny out of her back pocket and handed it to him, and he nodded, snapping another picture as he stood up and walked away.

As she bent over Hayner, examining his expertly placed bruises, Olette decided that she didn't mind this. She didn't mind that her friends could never win a fight against Seifer and his gang, though she didn't know why. She didn't mind comforting them and tending to their wounds afterwards, as they ranted heatedly about how they were terribly disadvantaged. She realized that if someday Roxas or Hayner managed to beat Seifer, their whole world would be turned upside down, and hers along with it.

"That girl is faster than she looks." Hayner groaned.

"And she looks pretty fast." Roxas agreed, "But you were still beaten by a girl."

"Well, Fuu's not your average girl, anyway." Hayner pointed out.

As Olette listened to Hayner's minute-by-minute retelling of his battle with Fuu, she played with a lock of her still slightly frizzy brown hair, and decided that she didn't mind this either. She didn't mind Hayner and Roxas giving a full rendition of every fight they were involved in, even if she had seen the whole thing. Hayner's story was half directed to Roxas, half to Olette, and Olette realized that they were proud to tell her of their defeats, even if they were defeats. As if they took pride in their ability to fight and protect her, if needed. Olette was never much of a fan of being the damsel in distress, but she didn't mind that her friends felt the need to defend her, every now and then. She supposed that that just came along with having three guys as your best friends.

And then her train of thought continued chugging contentedly along in that direction. There were other perks to having guys as your best friends, but she mentally concluded that sometimes they got a little over protective. Every now and then, Olette would talk to other guys, maybe even flirt a little bit, and if that guy didn't treat her with what her friends viewed was the proper amount of respect, that poor guy was subsequently ambushed and beaten up. Alas, Olette had yet to have a real boyfriend, per se, but it was still nice to know that her friends were there for her if any guy ever happened to break her heart.

Hayner was about halfway through his oral rendition when Pence returned with four sandwiches. They appeared to be freshly made and with bread straight out of the oven, the smell of the warm sandwiches wafted in their direction from many feet away. To Olette's surprise, Pence handed her money back to her.

"It's the first day of summer vacation. The sandwich lady let us have them free." Pence said happily as he distributed the sandwiches and Olette pocketed her money. Roxas and Hayner paused their discussion to receive their sandwiches with gratitude, and Roxas offered a "Thanks, Pence." Roxas and Olette helped Hayner up against the bench, as he was finding that he had feeling in his arms again.

Sitting down beside Roxas, Olette unwrapped her sandwich to find that it was still pleasantly warm, and that Pence obviously knew the other three well enough to guess their sandwich preferences. Roxas had a Cuban sandwich, she knew because she could smell the roast pork. Hayner had a cheesesteak sandwich and Pence had a Panini, while Olette herself had a light and tasty Caprese sandwich. She sighed contentedly as she began to eat her sandwich, savoring the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Hayner and Roxas began chattering again, while Pence, on Olette's other side, began showing her the pictures he had taken so far today. He started from the beginning, so it was as though Olette watched the day unfold in the snapshots that Pence had taken. In the first few, Hayner seemed to be arguing with Seifer, then there was the telltale shot of Hayner pointing and laughing at Fuu, possibly making fun of her. The following shot was of Fuu's face, her one visible eye narrowed in a mixture of annoyance and frustration, and the shots following that one were of the battle. Looking at Hayner's face in the pictures let her know that although he had stuck it out for quite a while, it hadn't been easy and he had been beaten worse than he liked to let on.

When the sandwiches were gone and Hayner had feeling back in his legs, the four decided to discuss their plans for the rest of the day.

"You know, we have that paper to do," Olette reminded them, though her suggestion was met with groans of protest. "If we get it over with today, we won't have to worry about it the rest of our vacation."

"Aw, c'mon, Olette," Hayner began, "It's only the first day! We have plenty of time to do it."

Though Olette couldn't help but think she had heard that phrase many a time before, she let the discussion move past the thought of doing homework. As the discussion continued around her, she took a moment to think to herself and wonder if it was okay to be this content. It seemed as though she should be wishing for something else, harboring a desire that drove her to be something different, something better. She had no such desire or drive, and for the first time in her life, it bothered her.

"We could go hang out on Market Street for a while." Pence suggested. "I need to pick up some film and get these pictures developed." As Olette tuned back into the conversation, she caught Pence's suggestion and agreed immediately. It couldn't help to shop around a bit, since she didn't have to pay for her meal this morning. (She couldn't quite decide if it was breakfast or lunch, and she concluded that perhaps it had served as both.)

"Good idea, Pence." Roxas agreed, and he stood up and helped Hayner up. The latter shook his head slightly, before picking up his Struggle sword.

"Ah, good friend, you have failed me once again." Roxas punched him in the arm lightly, to which Hayner winced.

"I'm not quite sure it's the sword that has the problem, Hayner."

"Whatever you say, Roxas."

* * *

Market Street was always busy around this time of day, but more so than usual now that it was summer. As the weather had warmed, people spent more and more time browsing the stores, as it was a good excuse to enjoy the outside, refreshing air, even if they did live in a city. 

While Pence had made his way over to the electronics store to get his film developed, Olette had wandered over to the art supplies store across from the bakery. She loved that store, simply because it sparked every creative sense in her body. In addition to being surrounded by hundreds of art supplies that provided endless possibilities, the smell of the fresh bread in the bakery delighted her as well. Once she was in the store, she was greeted by the store owner and she quickly meandered over to her area of interest, not bothering to skirt the sections like scrap booking and stenciling. No, in a matter or seconds she was examining the paints and the canvases all lined up against the wall, and she was immediately filled with a warm happiness. She didn't exactly need to buy anything in particular, but it always excited her to see so much paint in one place.

After a moment, she began looking through the tubes of paint, because she reminded herself that she was low on white. White was the most versatile of all her paints—before she had started painting she had never realized it, but white was in _everything._ She heard the bell on the door ring behind her, but she didn't take note of it until someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

Despite herself, Olette jumped slightly and turned to find Roxas behind her.

"Did I scare ya?" He asked, before dropping his hand back to his side and standing beside her, looking the wall in front of them up and down. "I knew I'd find you here. Buying paint again?"

"Yeah, I need more white."

"Hayner and Pence wanted to know if you wanted to take the train down to the Terrace."

Olette gave it a moment of thought, despite the fact that she knew she was going to go. "Actually, that sounds like a great idea. I think I'll take my paints and a canvas, so I can paint Sunset Hill at dusk. I've always wanted to, but I didn't have a chance to during the school year…" She trailed off, getting slightly excited at the prospect of painting.

"Well, if you're going to pick up your painting stuff, let's get moving. Hayner wants us to be over there in twenty minutes, so we can catch the 1:35 with time to spare."

"He's crazy!"

"I know."

* * *

Olette and Roxas decided that the best way to make it to Olette's house and then back to the train station on time was to take the trolley. As the flagged it down outside the art supplies store, it slowed down and they hopped on the back. Olette sighed happily as she watched the street go by before her as the wind tousled her hair in a playful sort of way. She smiled to herself as she leaned against the rail, as she wondered why riding a brightly colored trolley gave her this much pleasure. 

"You think we'll make it in time?" She asked, peering over at Roxas, whose hair was also being blown in the wind.

"I hope so," Roxas began, "Because I'm pretty sure they'll leave without us if we don't."

Olette laughed. She glanced out the side of the trolley, slightly paranoid that they wouldn't be paying attention when it passed her house, because if they missed the stop they would be late for sure.

"Olette!" The trolley driver called from the front, "Are you getting out at your house? It's just up here."

"Yeah, I am!" She called back.

"Do I need to slow down? I'm a little behind schedule!"

"Of course not!" She called back, as she took Roxas by the hand and they leaped off the back of the trolley onto her front sidewalk. They landed fairly gracefully, but the two had quite a bit of experience jumping off the back of the trolley, even if they had never done it together before. Her hand slipped out of his as she started up the front walk, up the stairs and through the front door as he followed.

"Shh, Taurus!" She said to her small cat as he mewed at her, but he followed her up the stairs as she and Roxas headed up to her room to pack her paints, canvas and easel. They meandered down the hall to the last door on the right, and she immediately headed to her closet to pack her things.

Roxas, on the other hand, was distracted by something shiny. On her dresser he spotted a sparkly orange hairclip, fashioned in the shape of a butterfly. "I don't think I've ever seen you wear this…"

Startled by his statement, Olette turned around, a tube of paint still in her hand, to see what in the world he was talking about. "Oh, that. Well, my mother bought it for me, and…" She trailed off, because as she spoke, he took a few paces across the room to where she was seated on the floor, bent down himself, and put it in her hair.

"I think it looks great." He said, before standing up again.

Slightly flustered, she looked up at him and asked, "You think so?". He nodded, and still slightly out of it, she continued packing up her paints.

In a matter of moments, she was finished, and the two had headed out the door, after nearly stepping on the tail of Capricorn, who was the fattest of the cats and was hungry again. The trolley wouldn't be back around for another fifteen minutes, so they would have to walk the rest of the way to the train station, taking all the shortcuts and back alleys that they knew. But alas, about five minutes away from the station they heard the 1:35 leave from the station, blowing its steam whistle happily. The two groaned as they moped up to the train station. They asked the person selling tickets in the booth, and apparently the next train to the Terrace was over an hour later.

Sitting out on the stairs outside the station, Roxas and Olette discussed their options.

"We could just wait for the next train," Olette suggested. "It's not that long…" Okay, so there weren't exactly that many solutions to choose from, anyway.

"I heard you can get to the Terrace through the pathways where the old sewers were." Roxas said, glancing over in the direction of the nearby entrance to the underground pathways. Sure, Olette had heard about them too, but she had never actually been down there…

"Are you sure?" She asked, looking over at him with curious brown eyes.

"Are you willing to take the risk?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

After another moment of thought, Olette sighed. "Well, it could turn out to be an adventure."

"That's the spirit."

* * *

An hour later, Olette had to admit that her spirits were considerably low. 

"I'm pretty sure we passed that doorway before."

"I dunno, Olette. They all sorta look the same."

She sighed. She was starting to get tired of walking, and she was a little frustrated with being lost in the old sewer system of Twilight Town. It had to be almost three o'clock, she reasoned, surely Hayner and Pence would notice that they hadn't shown up at the Terrace yet. She shook her head, frustrated, and felt an odd weight on the top of her head. Oh, she thought, as the memory returned. Roxas had put that butterfly in her hair…As she reached up to touch it, she heard the train rumble the ceiling over their heads.

"Roxas!" Olette said, spinning on her heels to grab his arm. With the other hand, she pointed up. "We'll follow the train!"

"Good thinking!"

They followed the sound of the rumbling train out of the sewers and onto the streets of Sunset Terrace, and they breathed in fresh air for the first time in an hour.

Olette had always loved how beautiful Sunset Terrace looked. Unlike Twilight Town itself, with towering buildings that threatened to touch the sky, Sunset Terrace was full of cute, quaint little buildings, like a small village. The whole town was paved with cobblestone and bricks, like a little town straight out of a fairy tale.

"What exactly did Hayner and Pence say they planned to _do_ in the Terrace?"

Roxas' brow furrowed as he thought. "I'm not exactly sure they told me…"

"Well, I suppose we can start looking by poking around the town a bit, they can't be too far off…"

So the pair headed down the hill into the happy little town, the children throughout rejoicing at their first free afternoon and their first day of summer vacation. They scoured the town for any sign of their two friends, but after an hour they were nowhere to be found.

"I don't see any point in looking any longer." Olette said, before asking, "Do you want to stop and get something to eat? There's a little coffee shop just around the corner."

"I'm not much of a coffee shop type person myself, but I don't mind." Roxas said, sticking his hands in his pockets.

* * *

"Are you two on a date?" The waiter asked as he brought them their coffee and Roxas a large cookie. 

"Nope." They answered in unison, and Olette decided that that had to have been a little creepy. "We're just good friends." Roxas added, a familiar threatening look in his eye.

"Okay, okay." The waiter backed away, then turned around to address someone's summoning from across the room.

Olette sipped at her coffee, keeping an eye on her painting supplies in a brown canvas bag lying beside her chair. She sighed, asking Roxas a question that had been sitting in the back of her mind for a while.

"Have you—have you thought about what we're going to do after high school? Y'know, what you're going to do with the rest of your life?" Her face was slightly flushed while she spoke, but when she was done, she was glad she had said it.

To her surprise, Roxas didn't shrug off the question with a simple reply, or change the subject because it was awkward. He actually set down his cookie, took a deep breath and thought about it. He set his elbows on the table and leaned on them, sighing slowly. "I suppose you could say I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I haven't really decided anything yet. It's kinda strange, and definitely scary. I mean—it seems like just yesterday you, me, Hayner and Pence were battling imaginary dragons in the playground at the preschool. And it seems like tomorrow we'll be shipped off to college and actually have to know what we're doing, for once. And I suppose that I'm afraid we're going to get separated." He paused, "No, I'm quite sure we're going to get separated. Pence'll probably get a scholarship for his photography, he's amazing. You—well, you don't have much to worry about, you've got the brains, and Hayner is athletic enough that just about any school would take him on. But me, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. All I really know is that I'm afraid of losing you guys."

And Olette looked him in the eye, for a long, simple moment, and she wondered if it was okay to want to be stuck forever in that moment, to want to make the day last forever. She wondered if it was okay to want to relive the first day of summer vacation a million times over for the rest of eternity, because today, she was happy.

* * *

When they realized that the sun would be setting soon, they headed out of the coffee shop and in the direction of Sunset Hill, keeping an eye out for Hayner and Pence. They reached the top of the hill just as the sun began to dip below the horizon. Although she had seen the sunset from this hill many a time, it was still breath taking. 

"Wow." Olette walked to the edge of the hill and sat in the grass, just as a summer breeze passed by and whipped through her hair once more, that when she got it out of her eyes she found that Roxas was beside her, silent but content. After a few minutes, Roxas resigned and laid back down in the grass, closing his eyes and enjoying the summer's evening. After a moment, he yawned.

"You woke me up too early, Olette." He said, chuckling, as he cracked open a blue eye to peer at her. She opened her mouth to reply, but as he closed his eye again, she was instantly struck with inspiration and her left hand twitched, the desire to paint almost overwhelming.

* * *

"Oh, look, Hayner, there they are. See, up on the hill?" 

"Damn! I knew we shouldn't have taken the train back for them! They managed to make their way here themselves!"

"Hayner, wait. Look. She's setting up to paint. I think its best we just go home."

* * *

Within moments she had quietly set up her easel and stretched her canvas over a board, pinning it swiftly. She squirted out the oil paints onto her palate and set to work on the scene before her eyes. After the first few strokes, she quietly set brush and palate down in the grass, and walked over to sit beside the place where her friend's head lay in the grass. 

"Roxas?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah?" He asked, sitting up to meet her eyes.

"All day I've been wondering whether or not it's okay to be content with the way I'm living, if it's okay that I don't wish for something different and better than this."

"And what did you come up with?" He asked.

"I think it's okay to be happy."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

She paused, and at last she added, whispering:

"I don't think I'll ever need more than this."


End file.
